Hannibal Lecter: You look like a rube

Hannibal Lecter knew where to hit with his words. In The Silence of the Lambs, he tells Agent Starling, “You know what you look like to me, with your good bag and your cheap shoes? You look like a rube. A well-scrubbed, hustling rube with a little taste. Good nutrition has given you some length of bone, but you’re not more than one generation from poor white trash, are you, Agent Starling? And that accent you’ve tried so desperately to shed? Pure West Virginia. What’s your father, dear? Is he a coal miner? Does he stink of the lamp? You know how quickly the boys found you … all those tedious sticky fumblings in the back seats of cars … while you could only dream of getting out … getting anywhere … getting all the way to the FBI.”

The dialogue goes on:

Starling: “You see a lot, doctor. But can you point that high-powered perception at yourself? What about it? Why don’t you — why don’t you look at yourself and write down what you see? Or maybe you’re afraid to…”

Lecter: “A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chi-an-ti.”